


Finding New Ways

by reynabethh



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Teen Titans, F/M, Pranks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21902881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reynabethh/pseuds/reynabethh
Summary: Annabeth is upset and lashes out at the new members of their team, which includes Leo. Piper doesn't know how to handle the situation, she's never really been upset with Annabeth before.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Piper McLean, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson & Piper McLean, Piper McLean/Leo Valdez
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

“What the hell happened out there, guys?” Nightwing was furious. She ripped her black domino mask off to reveal her gray eyes as soon as they got back to the titan tower. Her blond hair was a tangled mess tied up in a ponytail 

The team managed to lose Deathstroke once again. Annabeth had known him before he took on that name, which is why the situation was especially frustrating for her. It always was when it involved Luke. 

The group just stared at her, no one knew what to say. They fucked up. They lost the bad guy. They felt bad. Everyone wanted to comfort Annabeth but no one knew what to say. 

Percy stepped up to her, somehow having already removed his Aqualad costume. “Annabeth, this isn’t your fault. You’re a great leader and--”

She cut him off. “I don’t think it’s my fault.” She turned towards Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg. “It’s yours. We don’t need you on this team. We were fine without you.” 

She stormed off. No one said anything. Piper had to restrain Reyna with her lasso, preventing her from running after Nightwing and getting in a fight. 

After a couple of minutes, Percy told them she didn’t actually mean that and went off looking for them. Frank nodded and said “we know,” but that didn’t help Reyna calm down. 

After another small period of time, everyone went off to do their own thing. 

Piper flew up to sit on the top of the tower despite the heavy rain. She knew she did the right thing in restraining Reyna, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to punch Annabeth herself. 

Piper knew Percy was right. Annabeth didn’t mean it at all. She had a problem with pride and it came to the surface at especially emotional times. It was understandable. Everyone had their downsides. 

She also knew that Annabeth hadn’t struck a friendship with any of the new members. 

Nico is too creepy. Hazel hangs out with Nico too much, so she’s creepy too. Leo doesn’t take anything seriously. Frank seems decent, but I wouldn’t know because he spends the majority of his time as a green bear. 

These were all things Annabeth, her best friend, told her. She wouldn’t even give them a chance. That was the real reason Piper was pissed off. 

They all deserved a chance. Especially Starfire. He was funny and took the edge off of the pain when things went bad. Life was lighter and more manageable with him around. Piper found herself smiling more and getting more sleep. 

Leo’s ability to absorb energy would be useful for diffusing bombs. He was great with mechanics and constantly building things. He already built Kid Flash a new suit. 

The way he controlled fire was amazing. His hair was constantly on fire, but it never spread to his or anyone else’s clothes. When they were in costume, the fire on his head extended down to the floor. He said it made him look scarier. It didn’t. It just made him look like Rapunzel.

_Rapunzel is the cutest princess, though,_ she thought to herself. 

Anyways, it was nice to have someone else on the team who could fly and help her with things that involved super strength. 

The rain continued to splatter down her face and everywhere else. The sound it made as it hit the roof was loud. She couldn’t even hear the cars rushing past all those feet below her. 

She decided the noise was too much for her and stood up on the ledge. Before flying back inside to dry herself off, she turned around to watch the rain fall onto the steel parts of the ceiling and tell it to stop. 

What actually happened was the opposite; it told her to stop. 

The loud noise was not actually due to rain falling on steel. It was due to Leo doing… Something. Something that involved an oddly large suitcase. “Don’t jump!” He yelled at her. 

“I can fly!” Piper yelled back. 

“I know. It was a joke!” He smiled widely and continued to yell, even though he wasn’t making the loud banging sound anymore. 

“Haha!” She also continued to yell. She let out a small but very real laugh after doing so. “What are you doing here?” She asked. 

“Stuff. What about you?”

“I was here first. So you have to answer me first.”

“How _old_ are you?”

“It’s a valid point. Whether or not you see that isn’t my problem.” Her voice started feeling dry from all the yelling at the top of her lungs that she was doing.

“You’re right. It is. I use it all the time.”

After a couple of moments of confusion, she laughed. She laughed like she did on Themyscira after winning a competition, but it was better. It was the best laugh.

Before either of them had the chance to say anything else, some pieces of metal exploded from his suitcase and hit Leo so hard he fell off the roof. 

She ran over to the side he fell from, expecting to see him flying back up. Instead she just saw his body falling. What? 

She flew after him. Before she could get to him, his body felt flat onto the cold concrete, face down. 

The fire in his hair didn’t go out, but he wasn’t moving. She landed a couple of feet away and tiptoed towards him. “What the fuck? I thought you could fly.” She whispered, mostly to herself. 

She leaned over to pick him up and bring him inside. Before her hands could touch his torso, he agilely turned around and said, “I totally can! Gotcha!” with a huge smile on his face.

“Right.” Piper straightened herself and went inside, not waiting for Leo to catch up.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Piper did in the morning (after waking up at an entirely reasonable hour) was knock on the door to Percy’s room. When she didn’t get an answer, she opened it. Inside the room, she found what she expected to see.

Percy was lying on top of Annabeth in an awkward position. Annabeth was lying on her back with her arms spread out, somehow looking like she was taking up the whole bed. They were both in a deep sleep. 

Thus, Piper did what any good friend would do and yelled “help! my leg has turned to ice!” She kept her voice low enough so no one else could hear her but loud enough to wake up Percy and Annabeth.

It worked. They abruptly sat up in unison. It was rather impressive. Neither of them managed to open their eyes, though, which would be helpful if her leg had really turned to ice. 

Percy slowly opened half of one eye.

Annabeth slowly opened her mouth. “Piper,” was all she said. 

Before she could open her eyes, Percy opened his mouth and said “Your leg isn’t ice. Fuck you for waking us up. We could’ve been having sex in here, y’know.” 

Piper rolled her eyes. “It’s ten o’clock. Get up. We have an important mission today.” 

“We don’t.” Annabeth said. 

“Well if that’s what you think, you can go back to sleep.” Piper frowned.

Annabeth did just that.

“What’s the mission?” Percy asked, lying back down in the same awkward position and closing his eyes. 

“We have to prank Leo.” She said as she picked Percy up and brought him to the couch where they could begin their scheming.

Unfortunately, Percy fell right back asleep as soon as she put him down. However, that was enough to give her an idea. She picked him up again and brought him to Leo’s room. 

Once again, Percy fell right back asleep as soon as she laid him on Leo’s bed. 

Leo mumbled in his sleep but didn’t wake up. She didn’t quite understand why he was also still asleep at this hour, but at least he didn’t sleep like Annabeth and he only took up one side of the bed. She carefully wrapped Percy’s arms around him. To this, Percy opened his eyes, winked at her, and closed them again. 

She quietly left the room, leaving the door open just enough so she could catch the look on his face when he woke up.

It only took five minutes before he started waking up. While he was still half asleep, he said something along the lines of arms being too heavy. Piper didn’t catch it at all. 

After saying whatever he said, he turned over, said something else, and opened his eyes.

His eyes widened immediately and he sat up. 

Percy also sat up and yelled “Sike!” with a huge smile on his face. Then the smile faded and he said “Wait, you’re into Piper?”

“What? Why is that what we’re talking about?”

“First you said ‘Piper you’re arm is so heavy and sexy’ then you said ‘I can’t wait to make breakfast with you, Piper’ and now you’re trying to change the subject.”

Leo went bright red. Piper didn’t know what to do so she flew back to Percy’s room. 

She found Annabeth awake. They looked at each other. Neither of them said anything. Annabeth stood up and hugged her. Piper hugged her back. They hadn’t had a good hug in a long time. Piper really missed these hugs.

“I’ve missed these hugs.” Annabeth said, taking a seat on the bed. 

Piper sat down next to her. 

“I’m sorry about what happened yesterday. I just don’t know how to handle the new group dynamic.” Annabeth’s eyes didn’t meet Piper’s.

“Well, insulting people certainly isn’t the best way to go about it, but we can find new ways, together, right? You don’t have to be alone as a leader.” Piper tried to be comforting, but she was still bitter. The apology did lighten that bitterness, so she gave her a confident smile. 

The confidence was mostly fake, though. Annabeth definitely saw through it. 

They sat next to each other in silence for several minutes. Then Percy came running in the room and slid under the bed. The girls looked down at his head poking out. All he had to say was “I need to hide.”

Another couple of minutes later, Leo knocked on the door and pushed it open. “Hey, this is Jackson’s room, right?” His determined, fiery eyes wandered around the room until they landed on Piper. “Oh! Hi uh-” he scratched the back of his neck. “Piper.” 

She could tell it wasn’t just the fire in his hair that made his cheeks look so red. “Hi Leo.”

Annabeth pushed on her shoulder, motioning for her to go talk to him (preferably outside of her room). It didn’t work. She was frozen. “Yes, this is Percy’s room, but I think it’s Piper you’re looking for.” Annabeth stood up and went to stand in front of Leo. “Also, I’m… Sorry about what I said yesterday.”

Annabeth’s apology softened the situation, but it didn’t help Piper unfreeze. She wanted to turn invisible and run away. Wonder Woman had an invisible jet, right? So maybe she did have the ability to be invisible. She just had to try harder to unlock her hidden talent. 

Leo nodded at her apology. Annabeth sighed, stalked back towards Piper and picked her up. 

That definitely unfroze her. “Hey! I’m supposed to be the one with super strength!”

Leo laughed until Annabeth picked him up too. She brought them to the living room and said “talk.” Then she marched back to her room, probably to recover her boyfriend from under the bed. 

It was awkward. Piper didn’t know what to say, which was extremely rare for her. She always knew how to diffuse conflict. In this case, she didn’t even understand what the conflict was about.

Leo broke the silence. “You’re mad at me.”

“What? I don’t care.” Piper didn’t even know what she was saying, much less what she did or did not care about. 

“What don’t you care about?” Leo asked. Why did he have to ask her a question she didn’t have the answer to?

She sighed and took a deep breath. She was getting too wrapped up in her own thoughts. What was she trying to prove by not caring? “None of your business.” She snapped.

“Look…” Leo started. “The prank I pulled yesterday was stupid. I’m sorry.”

Piper frowned. “If it was so stupid then why did you do it in the first place?” 

“I thought it would be funny and…” Leo paused. He looked away. The fire in his hair seemed to get bigger. “I wanted to get your attention.” 

“What do you mean? We’re friendly around each other. You don’t need my attention.” Her frown lightened a bit.

“That’s nice of you to say, I guess? But I want to be even more friendly with you.” His eyes still wouldn’t meet hers. Piper didn’t want to understand his words, she didn’t know how to handle them. 

Suddenly, Leo was very close to her. Their thighs were touching. He was so warm, all she wanted to do was lean into him. She found that before she could do that, Leo was leaning towards her.

He kissed her. Piper’s lips and mouth were filled with a comforting warmth, but she didn’t move. 

He pulled away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean - you’re just really hot, y’know… and-” 

Piper threw her arms around him and kissed him back. He smelled like grease and burnt tofu. It was amazing and she laughed into the kiss. “Yeah, that prank was stupid. We should definitely come up with some less stupid pranks together. I can give you some good advice.”

“What, like placing Percy Jackson in someone’s bed? C’mon!” Leo was smiling, his forehead pressed against hers.

“Fuck you Leo! You ruined the moment.” She pulled away and crossed her arms, but she was unable to hide her smile.

“So you admit there was a moment!” Leo exclaimed, jumping up on the couch. 

Piper laughed so hard she fell off the couch. “No shit…” 

Leo sat down next to her on the floor, taking her hand. 

“This is going to be so much fun!” They said in unison. They each had an evil spark in their eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. Athena is Batman.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel that Annabeth is kind of ooc here, but dw it gets better. 
> 
> comments & kudos are appreciated!


End file.
